Vinicius Jr., Shortlisted for the Golden Boy Award

Vinicius Jr.is stepping up in the world of football little by little. He’s been shortlisted for the Golden Boy Award, given by the Italian newspaper Tuttosport on the 17th of December. This prize is for the best footballer under 21 and he has four other rivals to win the award: Justin Kluivert (Roma), Matthijs de Ligt (Ajax), Patrick Cutrone (Milan ) and Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool).

The last player who won the award was Kylian Mbappé last year and two other Brazilians were able to win the prize: Anderson and Pato. Besides, we have one player in the Real Madrid squad with this award in his house. Isco won it in 2012 when he was still playing for Málaga.

Vinicius Jr. is improving little by little. The arrival of Solari to the first team has opened him the doors to the games. With Julen Lopetegui, Vinicius didn´t have many opportunities with the first team and had to play with Castilla. It’s also a normal situation for a young player just arrived from Brazil. However, now he looks confident and playing better than ever for Los Blancos.

He was called by the Brazil U-20 national team in the international break and he spoke with Globoesporte about his situation at Real Madrid: “Not me, my family or Real Madrid staff imagines this start. We went to Spain to adapt ourselves in this first year, but we got it very quickly”.

“I started with Castilla but now I’m having more minutes with the first team. I’m happy for starting and taking the opportunities offered by Real Madrid”, said the Brazilian, whose friends in the team are Marcelo and Casemiro.

“It’s a different game. In Castilla they helped me a lot to get to the first team. I’ve been called to the list always with Solario and I’m having more minutes”, said Vinicius.

Realmadridnews.com is the best website to find the latest information about Real Madrid in English. We cover the club's day-to-day stories and events directly from Madrid and have some of the top experts.